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The Sir William Hardy was built in 1955, in Aberdeen, Scotland and entered service with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. She served until 1977 when she was put up for sale by the Ministry. She was acquired by Greenpeace UK at a cost of £37,000 and underwent a four-month refit. She was re-launched on 2 May 1978 as the Rainbow Warrior (named by Susi Newborn after the book Warriors of the Rainbow which had been given to her by Greenpeace founder, Robert Hunter. The book's rhetoric included this passage: "The world is sick and dying, the people will rise up like Warriors of the Rainbow...[2]). After a series of high-profile campaigns in the North Atlantic, including two escapes from captivity in Spain resulting in the resignation of the Admiral of the Spanish Navy, the Rainbow Warrior made her way to North America where she underwent modification in 1981 and the fitting of sails in a ketch rig in 1985.

She then travelled to New Zealand to lead a flotilla of yachts protesting against French nuclear testing at the Moruroa Atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago of French Polynesia. During previous nuclear tests at Moruroa, protest ships had been boarded by French commandos after sailing into the shipping exclusion zone around the atoll. For the 1985 tests, Greenpeace intended to monitor the impact of nuclear tests and place protesters on the island to monitor the blasts. The French Government infiltrated the Auckland offices of the organisation and discovered these plans.

The Rainbow Warrior, then captained by Peter Willcox, was sabotaged and sunk just before midnight NZST on 10 July 1985, by two explosive devices attached to the hull by operatives of the French intelligence service (DGSE). One of the twelve people on board, photographer Fernando Pereira, returned to the ship after the first explosion to attempt to retrieve his equipment, and was killed when the ship was sunk by the second, larger explosion.

A murder enquiry began and a number of the French agents were tracked and arrested. The revelations of French involvement caused a political scandal and the French Minister of Defence Charles Hernu resigned. The captured French agents were imprisoned, but later transferred to French custody. They were confined to the French military base on the Island of Hao for a brief period before being released. After facing international pressure, France agreed to pay compensation to Greenpeace, and later admissions from the former head of the DGSE revealed that three teams had carried out the bombings. In addition to those successfully prosecuted, a two-man team had carried out the actual bombing, but their identities have never been officially confirmed.[4] On 22 September 1985, the French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius summoned journalists to his office to read a 200-word statement in which he said: "The truth is cruel," and acknowledged there had been a cover-up, he went on to say that "Agents of the French secret service sank this boat. They were acting on orders."[5]

Following the sinking, Greenpeace and the French Republic entered into an agreement to submit Greenpeace's claims against France to international arbitration. The arbitral tribunal, seated in Geneva, Switzerland, was composed of three members (Professor Claude Reymond, Sir Owen Woodhouse and Professor Francois Terre) and rendered an award in 1987 in favor of Greenpeace, ordering France to pay it some $8.1 million. David McTaggart, Greenpeace's chairman, described the award as "a great victory for those who support the right of peaceful protest and abhor the use of violence."[6] Greenpeace was represented by Lloyd Cutler and Gary Born of Wilmer Cutler & Pickering.[6]

The wreck of the Rainbow Warrior was refloated on 21 August 1985 and moved to a naval harbour for forensic examination. Although the hull had been recovered, the damage was too extensive for repair and the vessel was scuttled in Matauri Bay in the Cavalli Islands, New Zealand, on 12 December 1987, to serve as a dive wreck and artificial reef to promote marine life.[7] The hull is now covered with a large colony of vari-coloured sea anemones.[8] The masts were salvaged and now stand outside the Dargaville Museum. A second ship, named Rainbow Warrior after the first vessel, was acquired in 1989 and a third ship, also named Rainbow Warrior, built from scratch, was launched in October 2011.

A number of books have been written about both the history of Greenpeace and the genesis of the Rainbow Warrior. "A Bonfire in my Mouth: Life, Passion and the Rainbow Warrior" by Susi Newborn was published in 2003 and Rex Wyler's "Greenpeace: An Insider's Account. How a Group of Ecologists, Journalists and Visionaries Changed the World" in 2004. In 2014, Pete Wilkinson's book "From Deptford to Antarctica - The Long Way Home" was published.

A number of books have been published about the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, including "Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior", produced the year after the sinking and written by shipboard author David Robie.[9]

There have been a number of internationally award-winning documentaries made about the Rainbow Warrior including "The Rainbow Warriors of Waiheke Island" (2009), "Departure and Return" (2006) and "The Women who Launched the Rainbow" (2005).

"Anchor Me" is a 1994 single by New Zealand rock band The Mutton Birds which a charity supergroup of New Zealand artists recorded in 2005 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior. The song peaked at #3 in the New Zealand singles chart.